]]>Being a PS4 user, it’s nearly mandatory to have an external storage solution for your game console, whether for purpose of backup in case of emergency, or just to get an additional storage option that helps you better organize your games/apps by expanding the capacity of PS4 system storage by adding an external hard drive that works as an extended storage.

Although a USB flash drive can be used exactly the same as a USB external hard drive on PS4, the overwhelming majority of PS4 users (if not all) discriminate between the two drives in terms of use, as they would give the large storage tasks to external hard drives, and small tasks to USB flash drives, and that’s absolutely justified logically, especially if you consider the price per GB for both drives.

Here, in this guide, you’ll go through everything you want to know about using a USB flash drive stick on PS4, whether you want to buy one and looking for the best option out there, or you need to know how to use a flash drive on PS4, or even to learn about USB flash drive vs external HDD on PS4. Simply you’ll acquire almost all the knowledge of this issue that you need to educate yourself about.

Let’s start first with laying out the best USB flash drives for PS4 in order to make it easier for a variety of visitors who have landed on this page just for that.

Best USB Flash Drives for PS4

The selections here are primarily based on considering the purposes that most PS4 users get a USB flash drive for (i.e. copying game saves and/or use it to reinstall/update PS4 System Software). Therefore, the items listed in this section are not classified as “high-end products”, rather they belong to the entry-level class, as we believe it’s a waste of money to go for a high-end, super-fast USB flash drive just to use it for small storage needs on PS4.

Accordingly, our top priority here is reliability/stability, and speed is not of our top concerns, because all modern branded USB flash drives come with adequate speed that fit very well for the purpose.

We’ve made sure also to only recommend prominent brands that are highly-reputable in the market, in order for you to rest assured that each of these USB flash drives is worth it. Moreover, we have only listed 16gb and 32gb USB sticks here, because they offer huge capacity with a price tag less than $10 or a little more. That way you can invest your money in the right place without regret.

It’s important to note that we don’t recommend paying extra money for a USB 3.0 flash drive if you’re going to solely use it for PS4, as this will be a real waste of money since you’ll only use this device for small storage needs. Therefore, we have confined our selections into USB 2.0 flash drives, as they come with a great value for their purpose.

Finally, all the drives here are fully compatible with PS4, as long as your PS4 runs version 2.5 or later of its system software.

Using USB Flash Drive on PS4

It’s way too easy to use a flash drive on PS4 as long as you know exactly for what purpose you want to use it. Because, depending on the purpose of use, the flash drive must meet some special specifications in order to fit for this purpose. These specifications are what determine the compatibility of flash drive with PS4 system.

In brief, a USB flash drive can be used in two ways:

Either as a regular external backup storage device that you can use for the backup of your data or to storage PS4 System Software to perform an offline update to your PS4 system or even do a complete system installation from scratch.

Or as storage extension that works almost the same as the primary system storage of PS4 to store/install games and apps.

Each purpose has its own compatibility standards that a USB flash drive must conform to in order to be approved by PS4 system.

USB Flash Drive Compatibility

If you’re going to use the USB flash drive on PS4 as a regular external storage device in order to keep a copy of your game saves or PS4 System Software update patch, then this flash drive doesn’t need to meet any specific standard unless that it’s formatted with a FAT file system (either FAT32 or exFAT).

As for the second purpose, which is to use the flash drive on PS4 as an extended storage, then the drive must conform to the following standards:

It must support USB 3.0 connection. The earlier generation of USB won’t work as extended storage.

The storage capacity ranges from 250gb to 8tb. Smaller or larger drives are not supported by PS4 system.

Both purposes have the same standards as with using an external hard drive on PS4. For that, we strongly advise that you visit this article to learn more about this issue in detail.

USB Stick Advantages on PS4

The advantages of using a USB stick on PS4 varies according to the purpose you want the USB stock for. But in general, as a miniature of the ordinary external hard drive, these little USB sticks offer nice advantages to their users, that are:

Too lightweight, tiny and portable. This offers an extreme flexibility to users who like to play their games on their friends’ consoles.

Safer and more secure. Due to its small size and the flash memory technology implemented in its manufacture, USB sticks offer more safety and additional security to its users over the regular external hard drives.

More reliable than external hard drives. The failure rates of USB stick is way too less than that with external hard drives.

That’s it. If you can afford buying the largest USB sticks for your PS4, then you have to in order to gain all these nice advantages.

Conclusion

USB flash drives (or USB sticks) are largely used on PS4 for lightweight use like keeping a copy of the game saves and storing the installation pack of PS4 System Software so as to perform an internal hard drive upgrade. It’s not often used as an external hard drive is used, although it can be used that way.

In all cases, we don’t advise to go for high-end USB sticks if you want to use them only on PS4. Mainstream class USB sticks should do the work perfectly without any issue.

]]>Everything about Upgrading PS4 Storagehttp://www.iwantgamez.com/ps4-storage/28/
Wed, 03 Oct 2018 04:24:18 +0000http://www.iwantgamez.com/?p=28There’s no doubt that PlayStation 4 (aka PS4) is one of the most powerful game consoles in the today’s market.

There’s no doubt that PlayStation 4 (aka PS4) is one of the most powerful game consoles in the today’s market. Its popularity has prevailed throughout modern gaming history, due to what it offers of solid features, reliable and consistent support, and high flexibility. All of which entitles users to enhance their gaming experience with it, either by adding new high-end accessories, or by performing a PS4 storage upgrade and remarkably improving its performance via replacing the stock storage device with a larger, faster and more powerful drive.

Now, after more than 4 years of the initial release of PS4, many things have changed in the PS4 gaming world. Starting from how Sony released many fixes and updates for the PS4 system that efficiently improved the performance and fixed major errors, and ending to the much-larger file size modern PS4 games are coming with as compared to the past years.

Many old users get annoyed and perplexed by an error message that shows up on the screen stating that there’s not enough free space in system storage when they try to download and install a new game or application. This is simply because the storage capacity of PS4 is too limited for meeting the modern storage requirements, and the best solution for this situation is to expand it.

This guide is well-composed to high standards so as to help you acquire the essential knowledge you need for upgrading/expanding PS4 storage limitation.

Getting More Storage on PS4

Adding additional storage space to PS4 is not a difficult task at all, rather it’s way too easy. Here we’ll take you through everything you need to know in order to successfully achieve your goal without any hassle.

Let’s start first with the available options for this purpose:

PS4 Storage Expansion Options

Sony allows PS4 users to expand the storage capacity of their game console with extreme ease and high flexibility. Just almost a year ago or so, PS4 system storage could be only expanded by replacing the internal storage device with a larger one. But now it’s possible to add more storage space to your PS4 with an external storage device (either an external hard drive or a USB flash drive).

Moreover, Sony has increased the free dedicated cloud storage space each PS PLUS subscriber has, from 1gb to 10gb. This is interesting to users who prefer online cloud storage over USB flash drive to store their game saves and trophies.

So now, at this point, you have learned the available options for expanding PS4 system storage, which are again:

Upgrading/replacing the PS4 stock internal hard drive with a newer and larger drive

Taking advantage of the small free 10gb cloud storage space given to you with your PS PLUS subscription

Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, and we’ll be discussing all of them in the sections below. Also, you’ll learn how to add additional storage to PS4, either by replacing the internal hard drive or by just connecting an external storage device via the USB port of PS4.

Add More storage By Replacing the Internal HDD

Replacing the internal hard drive of PS4 for the intent of upgrading its storage capacity and improve system’s performance has been the most popular option among PS4 fanboys who look forwards to enhance their gaming experience with PS4.

The major advantage of this option is that you’ll get rid of the obsolete, small, and slow stock hard drive of PS4, and replace it with a much powerful drive in all aspects. By this you’ll get up to 2tb of storage capacity, improved system performance and more solid reliability.

As for the disadvantages, they are indeed minor. The whole upgrade process may take up to 1.5 hours, divided in taking a backup copy of the stock hard drive, installing PS4 system software on the new hard drive, and restoring your backup file on the new drive. This option is our top recommendation for the purpose of expanding PS4 storage capacity.

How to Replace PS4 Internal HDD

Before getting into the process of replacing the internal storage device of PS4, the new hard drive must be compatible with PS4 storage upgrade specifications.

So, in order for the new drive to fit as a storage upgrade for PS4, it must conform to the following standards:

2.5-inch form factor. As larger or smaller form factors won’t fit into PS4 drive cage.

SATA Interface. Other interfaces are not accepted by PS4 motherboard.

Larger than 160gb. PS4 System won’t accept smaller drives. This will benefit users who want to upgrade their PS4 storage with an SSD and think they can go for a 64gb or 128gb capacity. Unfortunately, this is not possible with PS4.

Once you find a compatible drive for PS4 storage upgrade, then make sure the following tools are ready on hand:

Philips-head screwdriver in order to open PS4 drive case.

USB external storage device (Flash drive is preferred) in order to install PS4 system software from scratch on the new drive. Also to use it to backup your games on the stock hard drive to restore them later.

External hard drive enclosure. This is not mandatory, but it helps using the removed hard drive as an external storage for your PS4.

If everything is ready now, you can start right away with the storage upgrade process.

Add more storage by Connecting a USB External Drive

Sony has made it super easy to connect a USB storage device to PS4 in order to expand the PS4 system storage.

PS4 memory storage can be easily extended by adding an external storage device to it, as long as it goes with the following standards:

Not smaller than 250gb and not larger than 8tb. Any storage capacity not confined into this limit is not accepted.

Only two conditions that your external storage device must achieve so as to be compatible for extending PS4 system storage.

The major advantage of this method is that it is so quick and easy, and doesn’t require PS4 system software re-installation or carrying out backup and restore process.

On the other hand, it has its own disadvantages also that you’ll lose the significant performance boost an SSHD offers, and you’ll not be able to storage game saves or trophies on it. Moreover, streaming movies directly from an extended storage doesn’t seem possible. Let alone that PS4 system will fully format and encrypt your external hard drive that you won’t be able to use it on any other system. Additionally, no matter how large your external hard drive is, PS4 system doesn’t support storage partitions, and this might be bad news for a variety of users.

How to use external storage on PS4

Once you’ve decided to extended PS4 memory storage using an external storage device, you just need to connect it to the USB port on the rear of your PS4, and boot up PS4 system. The PS4 system will recognize the new external hard drive, and you’ll need to instruct it to format it as an extended storage.

PS4 Storage Expansion

We have learned already how to add more storage on PS4 and expand the overall system storage capacity. Basically, you can either replace the internal hard drive of PS4 or just add an external storage device (usually an external hard drive). Then there’re a few methods based on these two options, and the best of them is what offers the capacity you need with a high performance boost. That way you’ll not get PS4 storage full any sooner, and, at the same time, you’ll enjoy the new performance improvement.

PS4 Storage Space

The storage space of PS4 that you can use for your personal needs is limited to almost 408gb in the initial version of PS4, and to 861gb in the updated version. This storage space is not enough according to the modern storage needs of an average user, let alone enthusiasts. It’s good to know that you can simply increase PS4 storage space to up to 16gb.

PS4 Storage full

When PS4 storage becomes full, you have two choices to work around this problem: Either expand the PS4 system storage to a capacity that can satisfy your storage needs for too long. Or, free up your current hard drive by deleting unused games and neglected movies. But the second option seems, to many users, temporary, and PS4 storage will become full again in a short time, especially with the escalating file size of modern PS4 games that come in minimum 70gb of size.

To avoid getting your PS4 storage full, you need to expand it to at least 2tb of storage capacity. That way you will relax for a long time that there’s still enough free space to install new heavyweight games at anytime you want.

PS4 Storage Problem

The problem with PS4 storage is that it is too limited in capacity to the extent that it doesn’t meet the modern storage requirements of an average gamer. Additionally, the storage device used by PS4 is a low-quality device that’s not worth it at all (read about PS4 HDD specs in order to full realize this fact).

In order to work around the storage problem of PS4, you need to get more storage so as to expand the capacity of PS4 system to store your games. By doing this, you extend the limitation of PS4 in regard to holding more games and movies for you and your family members. That way there will be no storage problem with your PS4 anymore, especially if you upgrade the internal hard drive and add an external storage device all together.

PS4 Storage Device Type

The storage device that PS4 utilizes to store games and applications is featured by a traditional mechanical hard drive, the same as the one found in laptop computers. This hard drive comes in 2.5″ form factor, spins at 5400RPM, and is configured with SATA II interface.

The brand of this drive is HGST Travelstar, and its performance is not pleasant at all compared to other drives from the same class.

If you come to know the reality of this storage device PS4 is using, you’ll not only want to replace it for storage expansion purpose, but also to improve the performance of your game console, as modern hard drives offer better performance, higher reliability, and, for sure, larger storage capacity.

Storage Size

Depending on the version you own of PS4, the PS4 storage size is determined.

The initial version of PS4 came with a 500gb hard drive that offered 408gb of usable storage space. As for the updated version, which bears the name “PS4 Ultimate Player 1TB Edition“, it comes, as the name indicates, with 1tb hard drive, and offers almost 861gb of usable storage size.

Today, even the 1tb of storage space is not enough for an average PS4 fanboy, especially if the game console is shared by multiple players (say family members) that, each of them, has his/her own favorite games to store.

Checking PS4 System Storage

In order to find out how much storage space is remaining on your PS4, you need to check the PS4 System storage page. Doing this is very easy and it happens in two steps only. Simply, go to Setting -> System Storage and you’re done. You’re supposed to see this page showing up:

PS4 Out of Storage

When PS4 becomes out of storage, it means the storage device of PS4 has reached its maximum capacity to hold data you store on it. The way to fix that is simple. Either you free up more space on the PS4 storage device, or just expand it with either a hard drive replacement or adding a USB external hard drive. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and we have discussed them in several articles now that we advise you to read in order to get a clearer picture of this situation to avoid falling in the same problem and prevent PS4 from getting out of storage again.

When PS4 storage device is entirely filled, you’ll get a message stating: “There is not enough free space in system storage” like you can see in the image below:

This can be simply fixed by expanding the storage capacity of PS4.

PS4 Game Storage

Modern games released for PS4 require huge storage space in order to install and be ready for play. It’s enough for a user to know that an average PS4 game needs about 50gb to allow you to enjoy it. What about other games that need more storage space? These are a nightmare to users who still stick to the stock hard drive of PS4 and don’t look forward to extended the storage capacity of their game console.

Conclusion

Thee’s a huge trend among PS4 fanboys to upgrade their game console’s storage capacity, especially that today’s games are coming in real huge size that 500g or 1tb can be way too less than being sufficient to an average PS4 user.

Add more storage to your PS4 and enjoy the vast capacity of the new storage extension. While we prefer carrying out an internal hard drive upgrade, for the performance boost it offers alongside the vast storage capacity, the external storage device option is still popular among novices who don’t want to spend almost 2 hours replacing the stock hard drive with a new one, even if their current drive is not performing as fast.

Eventually, you’ll come to realize in the near future how important it is to expand PS4 storage capacity, especially with the dramatic increase of game file size that leaves the ones who still use the stock hard drive of PS4 with very limited options.

]]>Gaming M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD) Guide – The Best Optionshttp://www.iwantgamez.com/ssd/5/
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 08:30:39 +0000http://www.iwantgamez.com/?p=5Wonder how all those so-called latest gaming laptops are coming out skinnier than ever? Well, even if you consider yourself

]]>Wonder how all those so-called latest gaming laptops are coming out skinnier than ever? Well, even if you consider yourself as someone not much short of a gaming tech expert, you’re likely not aware of this latest transformation in software hardware.

And this transformation is precisely what is allowing the newest gaming laptops to get into their skinniest-best look. So let’s cut to the chase and find out what’s this transformation is all about.

The Emergence of M.2 SSD for Gaming
The once slab-like shaped gaming SSDs are now slowly transforming into something that are not much different from small memory sticks. But as you can probably guess, the incredible decrease in size doesn’t come with any kind of decrease in capacity.

However, the m.2 SSDs are actually believed to be considerably faster than their traditional SSD counterparts in many cases, especially when it comes to gaming. And of course, you need not be told how crucial the speed factor is to gaming.

Then there are seemingly also several other advantages such as eliminating the requirement for separate power or drive bay. Coming to the size, currently the standard is 22mm in width. This is obviously a significant improvement from the comparatively large and bulky traditional SSDs.

That said, the more common m.2 SSDs come in a size of 60mm and 80mm, though you’re probably going to see a much larger range as these things get more popular.

Why Would You Want to Get One?
Well, the m.2 SSDs may seem a bit more expensive than the typical ones; however for the right buyers the benefits they offer may make it well worth it.

First and foremost is the speed advantage, which is likely going to keep getting better as newer models keep hitting the market. You may see a noticeable improvement in the loading timings of the games you play. And if you have picked the right product by spending a bit more than you would on a typical gaming SSD, then you may very well also experience a significant improvement in your overall gameplay.

Gamers that have tried these little beasts are talking about how they are loving it and the pleasant improvement in the overall game speed and way fewer issues than they used to encounter with bigger, more demanding games. Some also talk about how common issues when playing many games at max settings such as sudden FPS drops and poor texture load speeds have become a thing of the past, after switching to a brand new m.2 SSD.

Both the read and write speeds are going to be excellent, too, with an m.2, and you’re probably going to get much more bang for your buck with it than you would with an older SSD.

Performance wise, there’s little to nothing to complain about an m.2 SSD. They seem to work several times better than their traditional counterparts in the same capacity range, and would boost your overall PC performance as well.

Finally, if you’re a serious gamer and would like to take your gaming experience to the next level without really shelling out a lot of money or putting in a lot of effort (these little wonder sticks are surprisingly easy to install as well), getting a good m.2 SSD is something you may definitely want to consider.